The Feeling of Love of White Fence - Double feature interview 2/3

WF Pic ©Alexandre Kurek - FOL Pic ©Pascale Cholette

Lien version française


From the east to the west, a wild fire burned Paris during the night of the 10th of December 2012. In its heart, were standing the Americans White Fence, drove by Tim Presley, and french fellows Feeling Of Love, led by Guillaume Marietta.

There was no way that we wouldn’t take the chance to collect their thoughts. Here is the second part of our interview in three acts: The Feeling of Love of White Fence.
(Part I here, Part III here).

Both of these guys have had different paths which have also crossed each other. They have already met on the road, during their mutual U.S. and European tours, they shared a record with Ty Segall and there is probably the same rock and roll blood running in their veins.

It’s obvious that they are making the history of today’s rock. Far from the industry, they possess an incredible inspiration. They crystallize this faith in all their records which have become “classics” in our record collections and in their live performances which are possibly forever etched in our minds. We have to thank them for that, first by our support and definitely also by listening to what they have to say…


x The Feeling of Love VS White Fence:

Tim : How old are you ?
Guillaume : I’m older than you.
T : No you’re not ! You look like you’re 26 or 27 !
G : I’m more… I’m 32 now.
T : I’m 33.
G : I thought you were 20 or something !
T : No dude !
G : Awesome !
T : So yeah, we’re the same generation ! (laughs)


G : First of all, I like White Fence. For many reasons. About the records, I like the way you record by yourself. You have many songs on one record.
T : Maybe too many… (laughs)
G : Yes maybe too many but it’s like « I don’t care ». You could do something very catchy with only ten songs with very good sound, you could do like a « hit album ». But you don’t, and I respect it. You sound more lo fi on album, I mean you have overdubs, stuff like keyboards, piano…
T : Flutes, bells and whistles… Weird shit…
G : Different kinds and waves of guitars… it sounds like "tuuuuuuu" , and then "pshittt", I like it. I could tell more but in english, I can’t (laughs).
T : It’s a hard question anyway.
G : And I like the live version of White Fence. I like when you have a kind of music on the album then when it’s different on stage and it’s really different and louder.

T : About Feeling of Love, let’s see. I think it’s comes off as intense which is hard to do, like for the record and then live. It’s powerful I think.
Which one is the new record?
G : It is not released yet and the last one is the red one (Dissolve Me) with the two kids and the snake.
T : That’s the one I have. But the one you had when we played together in San Francisco?
G : I remember we had the one with the tiger (Ok Judge Revival).
T : Oh yeah yeah, I have this one too… I guess what I mean is you guys are tight like the record but it’s powerful, it’s not like, I don’t know if you’re gonna understand what I’d like to mean. Like my mom’s boyfriend, he likes Creedence Clearwater Revival and then, when he went to see them in the 60’s or something, they played just like exactly the record, like the same tones almost and everything, and he was really sad…
G : Yes, I agree.
T : So what I mean is that for you, it’s also more powerful live !
G : It is.





x Link between artwork and music...

T : It's a mix with whatever looks cool.
G : I can’t explain.
T : Yeah, it’s hard to explain. It’s like almost a subconscious thing. It’s not like “Ok I have these songs and I’m gonna listen to it and do that”. I’ve done that before, I don’t know, it’s different for everything, for every record.
G : It’s like, it’s the same spirit, you can’t explain with words. It’s not because I wrote these words so I do this picture, it’s not like that. But, you know Daniel Johnston, sometimes, he does the same. Like he has this song about Casper The Friendly Ghost. He’s drawing and then sometimes it works also. For him, yes.



x Art expression...

G : For me, it’s because I feel really sad and useless if I don’t do anything
T : Same here!
G : I feel just like a piece of shit if I don’t record or write a song or even draw some stuff.
T : I’ll go at saying the same as I feel like shit if I don’t do, art. Like a therapy. It’s all I have. You know what I mean? That makes me happy.



x The Velvet Underground

G : It’s kind of the main influence we have.
T : It’s like the same thing with the Ramones for example. It’s like simple, powerful and free. Like you can listen to it and you’re not ripping it off but it inspires you to do your thing. Whether it’s simple or hard or whatever. It’s just like a freedom thing. It’s weird! It’s a liberating thing.
Then, it’s really hard to pick one song… Because sometimes you want to listen to… like… Loaded. Sometimes you’re in a “Loaded” mood (laughs)… Do you know what I’m saying?
G : Have you listened to “Squeeze”?
T : Yeah dude (laughs), I have Squeeze, not on record, I can’t find it, I think I have the mp3…
G : They did a repress of it…
T : Doug Yule’s record…
G : It’s only Doug Yule…
T : Doug Yule man… (laughs).

x The garage tag.

T : It’s like the whole grunge thing.
G : Yeah or the punk before… Garage for me is just a simple way to play rock and roll. In a instinct way. You just play, you plug and play.
T : Yeah. In the states there is a big psychedelic thing/scene, that throw around. Like there are a lot of psychedelic bands… but that doesn’t mean shady. They could be like really heavy and psychedelic or… electronic and psychedelic.
I understand that people put tags on things, I understand that. But I don’t really think about it. You can call me whatever. You still can call me “Late for dinner”… (laughs).
And I wouldn’t say that Feeling Of Love is like “a garage band”.
G : But when we started to play together, the entire “real garage scene” from France, they used to say “You don’t play garage”. And I said “Okay”. And now they say “You play garage”. Okay!
T : Okay, cool whatever (laughs).
G : Whatever yeah….




x About names…..

G : I started The Feeling Of Love alone, but I didn’t want to call my project with my own name. So I just wanted to find…
T : A title.
G : Yeah, a title, and you can put whatever you want in the title.
T : Right.
G : And maybe I chose a stupid title… But now, I think it’s ok, because anyway, all the songs are about love or I just want to write about love so ok ,whatever… it’s the feeling of love.
T : I like that name a lot, I think about it all the time, it’s weird, I don’t know why, I really do dude! (laughs)
Sometimes you can be hurt like physically, being fucking hurt, and feeling that, the feeling of love. That’s serious shit. It’s the most important feeling I think.
G : But for you, White Fence, it’s a gang, isn’t it?
T : Yeah, it is. But it’s like the juxtaposition between the gang and how violent it is, but they have a lot of love between each other, and their families etc…
They rob and hurt people, and sell drugs and guns but they also have this bond, this real close thing.
But and in the other side is the typical white suburb with “Mom, dad, kid” and “white picket fence” . It looks perfect. They have money, everything looks perfect. But inside, there are some bad people…
G : The Feeling of Love of the White Fence.
T : Yeah! (laughs), it’s like that.




x The end of the world. (The interview was lead the 10th of December 2012, but there wasn’t any end of the world after all…)

T : Oh the end of the world ? I guess I’ll die ! (laughs)
G : Oh yeah ? I will live forever.
T : Oh yeah, I forgot about that ! I will live forever too. (laughs)
G : Then you have 2 options…



- Discography White Fence on labels Make A Mess, Woodsist, Castle Face Records etc…
- Discography Feeling Of Love on labels Born Bad Records, Kill Shaman, Captcha Records, etc… and there.


B & J / FGC. Big thanks to JL & A